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jUlemotr of (general JWtontgomerp 

Sfter tofjom iHontgomerp Hobge, Jlo. 19, 
Jf. & 8. 4tt., $&tlabelpf)ta, $a., is; nameti 

[Read before Clinton A. Sowers, Esq., W. M., and the 
members of the Lodge on May 2, 191 2, by Captain 
C. W. Allen, Canadian Infantry (retired), formerly of 
The Globe Editorial Staff, Toronto, and later of the 
Department of the Interior, Ottawa.] 

Worshipful Master, Officers, and Brethren of Mont- 
gomery Lodge : It is just twelve months since, being 
desirous of enjoying Masonic status in Philadelphia, it 
was suggested to me by Brother M. Henry Green, M.D., 
a P. M., of Chester Lodge, No. 236, that the interesting 
history of your Lodge, especially in its military relations, 
would strongly appeal to one of my temperament. He 
was good enough to vouch for me as a M. M. and to 
introduce me to many of your members, his personal 
popularity no doubt contributing greatly to the cordial- 
ity of the welcome, as a visiting brother from afar, then 
extended to me. My petition for affiliation having been 
favorably reported, I was elected a member of Mont- 
gomery Lodge last September, and have since had every 
reason to feel grateful for admission to an organization 
in which the exalted principles of the Craft find the fullest 
exemplification in practice. 

The interest which I found in studying the history 
of the Lodge by our late Brother George Griscom, P. M., 

Page Three 






Jfflemotr of (general jHontgomerp 



as briefly set forth in the appendix to its by-laws, and 
more fully in the work by our late Bro. Alex. H. Morgan, 
P. M., left me unsatisfied on one point — the very meagre 
references to General Montgomery, whose name was pre- 
fixed to "No. 19" in 1836 by authority of the R. W. Grand 
Lodge. My researches in the library of the Masonic Tem- 
ple, and in that of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
whetted my appetite to learn still more ; and I then drew 
upon the resources of the Philadelphia Free Library and 
those of its West Philadelphia branch. The material thus 
collected from various authorities I now present to you 
almost in the very words of the historians and biog- 
raphers to whom I am thus indebted ; and here let me 
state that I have been impressed with a strong sense of 
the accuracy and impartiality of those standard works 
by American writers which I consulted, though I regret 
I cannot express an equally favorable opinion of the 
results of the labors of the authors of the school text 
books generally in use in the United States, from which 
unhappily the majority of the citizens have acquired 
such knowledge as most of them possess of the history 
of this great country. 

Major-General Richard Montgomery was born in 
Swords, near Feltrim, County of Dublin, Ireland, 
December 2, 1736, being third son of Thomas Mont- 
gomery, M. P. for Ljff ord ; and it is an interesting fact 
that Brother Jas. F. Montgomery, of this Lodge, has 

Page Four 






Jfflemotr of General jflontgomerp 



actually been in the bedroom where our hero first saw 
the light. Richard was educated at St. Andrew's and 
Trinity College, Dublin; and on September 21, 1756, 
was appointed ensign in the 17th Regiment of Foot, in 
which he became subsequently lieutenant and captain. 
He served with his regiment under Colonel (afterwards 
General) Haviland at the siege and capture from the 
French by the British of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in 
1757, and in the expedition against the French posts on 
Lake Champlain in 1759. After the fall of Montreal he 
was present with his regiment at the capture of 
Martinique, in the West Indies, and later at the siege 
and capture of Havana by the British forces. At the 
peace of 1763 he went with his regiment to New York, 
and in 1765 returned home with it. While at home he 
appears to have made the acquaintance of Col. Isaac Barre, 
Edmund Burke, Charles Fox, and other men of strong 
Liberal views. He sold out of the army* in 1772, and 
bought a farm of sixty-seven acres at King's Bridge, now 
a part of the City of New York. Soon after he married 
Jane, daughter of Judge R. R. Livingstone, of New York, 
but left no issue. His widow survived "my soldier," 
as she called him, fifty-three years, dying in 1828. 

The events leading to Richard Montgomery's design 
of settling in America have always been involved in some 



[*Note — Under the system which prevailed then, and for over one hundred 
years after, officers purchased their commissions.] 

Page Five 



Jfflemotr of General Jllontgomerp 



obscurity ; but the following letter written from England 
to an intimate friend, printed in the New York Genea- 
logical and Biographical Record in 1871, may give the 
whole clue to his resolve to emigrate. He writes : — 

' ' You no doubt will be surprised when I tell you I 
have taken the resolution of quitting the service and ded- 
icating the rest of my life to husbandry, for which I 
have of late conceived a violent passion — a passion I am 
determined to indulge in quitting the career of glory for 
the substantial comforts of independence. My frequent 
disappointments in respect to preferment, the little pros- 
pect of future advancement to a man who has no friends 
able or willing to serve him, the mortification of seeing 
those of more interest getting before one, the little chance 
of having anything to do in the way of my profession, 
and that time of life approaching when rambling has no 
longer its charms have confirmed me in the indulgence 
of my inclination. And, as a man with little money cuts 
but a bad figure in this country among peers, nabobs, 
etc., etc., I have cast my eyes on America, where my 
pride and poverty will be much more at their ease. This 
is an outline of my future plans." 

The tenor of the foregoing is borne out and con- 
firmed in another letter — one of the last he ever 
penned — to his father-in-law, Judge Livingstone, dated 
at " Headquarters before Quebec, December 16, 1775," 
only two weeks before his tragic death as will hereafter 
be related. Thus he wrote : 

Page Six 



JWemotr of (general jHontgomerp 



"Should my good fortune give ine success, I shall 
return home as soon as possible. I have lost the 
ambition which once sweetened a military life — a sense 
of duty is the only spring of action. I must leave the 
field to those who have a more powerful incentive. I 
think our affairs at present are in so prosperous a 
situation that I may venture to indulge myself in that 
sort of life which alone gives me pleasure. Should the 
scene change, I shall always be ready to contribute my 
mite to the public safety." 

In thus speaking of " our affairs," he must clearly 
have been referring to the prosperous situation of the 
revolutionary government rather than to any hopeful 
prospect he may have perceived in his operations before 
Quebec. Alas for him and his adopted country, what a 
change a fortnight brought to those bright dreams of 
release from duties ! Yet the concluding sentence in 
this letter to his father-in-law betrays the principal 
cause of his failure in the attack on Quebec, the force 
of which, perhaps, his unflinching spirit underestimated. 
Speaking of his small army, he writes : " The unhappy 
passion for going home which prevails among the troops 
has left me almost too weak to undertake the business I 
am about." But this is anticipating an explanation of 
causes which will come later on. 

In 1775 Montgomery was sent as a delegate to the 
first Provincial Congress at New York, and in June of 

Page Seven 



Jfflemotr of General Jflontgomerp 



the same year, "sadly and reluctantly," as he said, he 
consented to be made a brigadier-general in the Conti- 
nental army, ranking second among the eight appointed 
and being the only one not a native of New England. 
He consoled himself with the reflection that, as he ex- 
pressed it, "the will of an oppressed people, compelled 
to choose between liberty and slavery, must be re- 
spected." He parted with his young wife at Saratoga, 
and started as second in command of the expedition 
under Major-General Philip Schuyler, which was in- 
structed " to take possession of St. John's and Montreal, 
and pursue any other measures in Canada to promote the 
furtherance and safety of the American cause. ' ' 

Meantime Schuyler, though confined to his bed on 
account of serious illness, had sent out on the ioth day 
of September, 1775, a party of five hundred; they re- 
turned on the eleventh, as his report says, "disgraced 
by unbecoming behavior." Upon this Montgomery, 
having discerned in the men a rising spirit more consonant 
with his own, entreated permission to retrieve the late 
disasters, and Schuyler, who was put into a covered boat 
for Ticonderoga, turned his back on the scene with 
regret, but not with envy, and relinquished to the gallant 
Irishman the conduct, the danger, and the glory of the 
campaign. Montgomery's chief difficulties grew out of 
the badness of the troops. Schuyler had already com- 
plained of the Connecticut soldiers, announcing even to 

Page Eight 



JWemotr of General jHontgomerp 



Congress : " If Job had been a general in my situation, 
his memory had not been so famous for patience." 
" The New Englanders," wrote Montgomery, " are the 
worst stuff possible for soldiers. They are homesick ; 
their regiments are melted away, and yet not a man 
dead of any distemper. There is such an equality 
among them that the officers have no authority, and 
there are very few among them in whose spirit I have 
confidence. The privates are all generals, but not 
soldiers, and so jealous that it is impossible, though a 
man risk his person, to escape the imputation of 
treachery." 

It seems that New England men were temperament- 
ally disinclined to engagements which would take them 
far from home on wages to be paid in a constantly 
depreciating currency ; besides, the Continental bills 
were remitted so tardily and in such inadequate amounts 
that even those wages were not paid with regularity, 
and this negligence threatened the " destruction of the 
army." For want of funds to pay the accounts of the 
commissary and quartermaster the troops were forced to 
submit to reduced allowances. Washington himself 
felt keenly the habitual inattention of Congress and its 
agents, and the sense of suffering wrongfully and 
needlessly engendered discontent in his camp. The 
Connecticut soldiers, whose enlistment expired early in 
December, were determined to leave the service. 

Pagre Nine 



JHemotr of General Jfflontgomerp 



Washington would have had Trumbull make an example 
of the deserters, but Trumbull answered, " The pulse of 
a New Kngland man beats high for liberty; his engage- 
ment in the service he thinks purely voluntary. He 
thinks himself not further holden. This is the genius 
and spirit of our people." 

Yet amid all his vexations Montgomery's reputation 
steadily rose throughout the country, and he won the 
affection of his army ; so that every sick soldier, officer, 
or deserter who passed home agreed in praising him 
wherever he stopped.* 

Montgomery's expedition aroused great resentment 
in Canada, as Congress a short time before had expressly 

['Note- The foregoing: criticisms are quoted, practically verbatim, from Ameri- 
can historians in order that Montgomery's peculiar qualities may be duly 
estimated. If I may here be pardoned a digression, I would like to venture an 
opinion that the public generally have very little knowledge, and even less 
appreciation, of the debt of gratitude owing to the patriotic services of the offi- 
cers of the National Guard, that valuable organization which is at all times sub- 
ject to call in support of the civil authorities in any emergency, and ever ready 
to swell the thin ranks of the regular army should the United States unhappily 
again be engaged in a foreign war. No one who has not had personal experience 
can possibly imagine the effort required of company commanders in keeping the 
ranks full and the men fairly efficient during " these piping times of peace " 
— how much tact, forbearance, self-abnegation and control of temper, to say 
nothing of pecuniary expenditure, is required on their part to attain these 
objects. I know whereof I speak, for I soon found the difference, after serving 
in the regular Canadian troops formerly composing the garrison at Winnipeg, 
when, on their disbandment, I was appointed to command the first company of 
infantry (Volunteer Militia) authorized for that city. I then realized that I could 
no longer say with the Roman centurion (Matthew VIII, 9) " For I am a man 
under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he 
goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, and 
he doeth it," What then must have been Montgomery's feelings, after his 
military experience of several years as an officer of regular troops, when he 
accepted a command over the undisciplined raw levies put into the field by 
Congress or individual States ! ] 

Page Ten 



iRemotr of General Jfflontgomerp 



disavowed any intention of such an invasion, and had 
caused this disavowal to be widely circulated there. 
The Americans took Isle aux Noir, but failed at 
St. John's. Supplies were bad and desertion rife. 
Nevertheless, Montgomery took Fort Chamblai, where 
was a stock of ammunition of which the Americans were 
in much need, and afterwards captured St. John's, a 
more important conquest — where were taken, among 
other spoil, the colors of the British Royal Fusiliers, the 
first regimental colors taken in the war. " Till Quebec 
is taken, Canada remains unconquered," Montgomery 
wrote to Congress. In December, 1775, he effected a 
junction with Colonel Benedict Arnold at Point aux 
Trembles, and laid siege to Quebec. 
* * * * * * 

Now Quebec was the strongest fortress in America, 
and at no time during the siege did the besiegers' number 
exceed that of the garrison, which was eighteen hundred 
strong, including five hundred and fifty Canadians, the 
whole being under the command of the Governor, Sir 
Guy Carleton, K. C. B. Colonel Arnold, so soon as 
he was reinforced by Montgomery's corps, without 
waiting for that general, who marched more slowly, 
appeared before Quebec at the head of nine hundred 
Provincials and some Canadians under Colonel Living- 
ston, an American. The fidelity of the upper classes to 
British interests left the latter headless, so that they 

Pajje Eleven 



ilemoir of General Jfflontgomerp 



were now led by alien chiefs. Montgomery's design was 
not to besiege Quebec in the usual form, as he was 
totally unprovided with engineers and siege artillery, 
but rather to choose a favorable occasion for an un- 
expected assault upon the most promising point of the 
defences, feint attacks being delivered simultaneously 
by columns led by Colonel Arnold and two other com- 
manders against other parts. 

It certainly was no easy matter to surprise a 
strongly fortified place, defended by a vigilant garrison. 
A desire to terminate by a crowning success the series 
of fortunate hits he had been able to give the British since 
he entered their colony perhaps blinded the perceptions 
of Montgomery to the perils attending his present 
enterprise. It has also been suggested that he desired to 
emulate the astonishing exploit of Wolfe, in whose army 
he had served. An auspicious moment for assaulting the 
place successfully might arrive, but it had to be waited 
for; and, besides his paucity of forces, he was not properly 
supplied with money and was short of provisions. His 
men, poorly clothed and unaccustomed to the severity 
of a Lower Canadian winter, were already afflicted with 
small pox, a disease which soon spread among them and 
continued to decimate their ranks to the last. As if 
these material wants and physical evils were not enough 
to cause the hazardous enterprise to miscarry, an 
additional source of weakness was opened up through 

Page Twelve 



jflemotr of General Jfflontgomerp 



dissensions between Colonel Arnold and his officers. 
Again, the Canadians who had joined the American 
ranks, or who favored the pretensions of Congress, 
began to perceive that they would have to play a 
secondary, even a subservient, part as the struggle 
against British domination progressed. The Americans 
now among them, to begin with, decided everything 
without consulting the inhabitants ; they nominated 
officials, convoked public meetings, etc., without asking 
Canadian assent upon any occasion. The royalists were 
not slow to profit by this turn in the tide of public 
feeling. 

The prudence of General Montgomery, so long as 
he lived, much contributed to prevent an explosion of 
hostile feeling against his people by the Canadians, who 
began to express an opinion that it were better to obey 
one's own chief, under whatever form of general 
government, than to be indebted for political freedom to 
aliens. Montgomery certainly manifested great address 
in managing the different orders of men whom he dealt 
with, being especially careful not to awaken fears of 
change in the most sensitive of all — the privileged classes. 
He enjoined on his men constant respect for the Catholic 
religion and its ministers. He promised freedom of wor- 
ship for all, and protection to the existing religious 
foundations. To bring about a favourable reaction in 
the Canadian mind Montgomery discerned no other 

Pa*e Thirteen 



jflemotr of General Jfflontgomerp 



means than to capture Quebec and annihilate the 
royalism therein concentred. This feat he determined to 
essay by nocturnal escalade, only waiting for a night of 
uuusual darkness to plant his ladders unobserved by the 
garrison . 

Montgomery divided his scanty force into four 
attacking columns, one of which was led by himself, 
another by Colonel Arnold. At four o'clock, December 
31st, two rockets ascended and immediately several 
responsive signals, from the other corps, were perceived 
by the sentinels on the ramparts, who forthwith gave 
the alarm. When the Americans arrived at the ramparts 
of the landward side of the city they were received with 
a heavy fire of musketry, which they were not slow in 
returning. Meanwhile Montgomery was moving onward 
with his (the largest) column, which took much time to 
defile, for the path along which it had to pass was very 
narrow, in some places two men not being able to march 
abreast between cliff and strand, besides the way being 
encumbered with ice blocks and wreaths of newly-fallen 
snow. He nevertheless cleared all obstructions and reached 
the outer barrier of Pres de Ville, through which he 
passed without difficulty ; but, on attaining the next, he 
was confronted by a masked battery, mounted with 
seven cannon and manned by a guard fifty strong under 
a Captain Chabot. The artillerymen within stood beside 
their guns with lighted matches, all ready to apply 

Page Fourteen 



Jfflemotr of (general Jfflontgomerp 



them and send a shower of grape so soon as the foe came 
near. 

Montgomery was astounded on finding such pre- 
parations made for giving him a hot reception, being 
unaware that his plans for an assault had been betrayed 
to the Governor by deserters. Halting within fifty yards 
of the battery, he turned round, seemingly to confer 
hastily with the officers behind him, and then, followed 
by the latter and their men, suddenly sprang towards 
the battery, when Chabot gave orders to fire. The dis- 
charge that followed proved destructive ; cries and 
groans, which suddenly arose, proved its efficiency. 
Montgomery himself, his two aides-de-camp, with several 
other officers and a number of their men, lay on the 
ground, some killed outright or writhing in agony from 
mortal or other wounds. Colonel Campbell, upon whom 
the chief command of Montgomery's column now 
devolved, finding that his men were discouraged by the 
loss of their general and so many of their comrades, 
thought it would be useless to reform his disordered 
ranks for a second attempt to force the perilous pass. 
He turned heel, and fled with the utmost precipitation. 

The other attacks, partly successful at first, ulti- 
mately failed. All the survivors of Arnold's column 
remained in the hands of the Governor, the commander 
himself being badly wounded. The loss of the 
Americans was great in prisoners, and the death of 

Page Fifteen 



Jfflemotr of (general jHontgomerp 



Montgomery was an irreparable calamity for their cause. 

The corpse of that general, along with the bodies of 
twelve others, was next day disengaged from snow heaps 
at a little distance from the barrier which he had 
attempted to enter. Some of the captured American 
officers, unconscious of the fate of their chief, having 
recognized his sword in the hands of an officer of the 
garrison, were moved at sight of it and divined the loss 
that had befallen them. The Governor, on his part, 
showed sympathy for them and his own regard for the 
memory of Montgomery by interring his remains with 
military honors, the obsequies being attended by the 
Governor and his staff and many of the officers cf the 
garrison. 



It is not necessary here to follow in detail the 
further incidents of this American invasion of Canada, 
which terminated unsuccessfully after numerous engage- 
ments undecisive of the campaign. General Wooster 
took chief command in place of Colonel Arnold, who 
first succeeded to it on the death of Montgomery. 
Wooster was superseded in May, 1776, by General 
Thomas. Later General Sullivan arrived with reinforce- 
ments and took command of the whole. It was under 
General Sullivan that Colonel Thomas Procter, the first 
W. M. of Lodge No. 19 of whom we have record, after- 

Page Sixteen 



Jflemoir of General Jflontgomerp 



wards fought at the Battle of Brandy wine, where 
Lafayette received his first wound. 

At the time of his death, General Montgomery was 
in the first month of his fortieth year. He was tall and 
slender, well limbed, of a graceful address, and had a 
Strong and active frame. He could endure fatigue and 
all changes and severities of climate. His judgment 
was cool, though he kindled in action, imparting con- 
fidence and sympathetic courage. Never himself negli- 
gent of duty, never avoiding danger, discriminating and 
energetic, he had the power of conducting freemen by 
their voluntary love and esteem. An experienced 
soldier, he was also well versed in letters, particularly 
in natural science. In private life he was a good hus- 
band, brother, and son, an amiable and faithful friend. 
The rectitude of his heart shone forth in his actions, 
which were habitually and unaffectedly directed by a 
nice moral sense. He overcame difficulties which others 
shunned to encounter. Foes and friends paid tribute to 
his worth. 

At the news of his death " the whole city of 
Philadelphia was in tears ; every person seemed to have 
lost his nearest relative or heart friend." In the British 
Parliament the great defenders of liberty vied with each 
other in his praise. Barre, his veteran fellow soldier in 
the late war against France, Edmund Burke, and others 
spoke in praise of " the movements " as the latter said, 

Page Seventeen 



Jfflemotr of General jWcmtgomerp 



' ' of the hero who in a single campaign had conquered 
two-thirds of Canada." "I" replied Lord North, 
leader of the Government, "cannot join in lamenting 
the death of Montgomery as a public loss. He was 
brave, he was able, he was humane, he was generous ; 
but still he was only a brave, humane, and generous 
rebel. Curse on his virtues ; they've undone his coun- 
try ! " " The term of rebel," retorted Fox, " is no cer- 
tain mark of disgrace. All the great assertors of liberty, 
the saviours of their country, the benefactors of mankind 
in all ages, have been called rebels. We owe the consti- 
tution which enables us to sit in this House (the House 
of Commons) to a rebellion. ' ' So passed away the spirit 
of Montgomery, with the love of all who knew him, the 
grief of the nascent republic, and the eulogies of the 
world ! 

Congress, "desiring to transmit to future ages the 
patriotic conduct, enterprise, and prowess of Mont- 
gomery," voted that a memorial in marble should be 
erected to him in the graveyard of St. Paul's Episcopal 
Church, New York. The memorial was ordered in Paris 
by Benjamin Franklin. In 1818 Congress passed an 
"Act of Honor," by which permission of the Canadian 
Government was obtained for the removal of Mont- 
gomery's remains, which were then laid in St. Paul's 
Church, New York. An inscription on the rocks at 
Cape Diamond (Quebec) still shows the spot where he 
fell. 

Pare Eighteen 



jWemoir of (general jHontgomerp 



I was for a while somewhat puzzled over an 
apparent discrepancy, for Lodge No. 19 did not obtain 
authority to take the name of " Montgomery " until 
1836 — eighteen years after Congress had paid such 
exceptional honors to the deceased hero. When, how- 
ever, I happened to notice that 1836 was the one- 
hundreth anniversary of his birth, the otherwise 
unexplained delay seems satisfactorily accounted for. 

As probably no really great man has ever altogether 
escaped detractors, it is well to mention how Parkman, 
the historian, states that some writers have confused 
Richard Montgomery, ignorantly and most unjustly, 
with Capt. Alexander Montgomery (his elder brother), 
43d Regiment, who incurred the censure of his brother 
officers for inhumanity to some prisoners that fell into 
his hands when serving under Wolfe before Quebec. 

Brethren, my task is done. I trust I have succeeded 
in showing that the gallant and distinguished officer 
after whom Lodge No. 19 is named was a soldier sans 
peter et sans reproche, not unworthy indeed to be classed 
with the famous Roman general Cincinnatus, who, when 
called upon by a delegation of his fellow citizens to lead 
their armies against savage hordes, was found by them 
with his hands upon the plough ; or with that great man 
of whom it has been said he was " first in war, first in 
peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen." 
Nevertheless this effort would be incomplete if I failed 

Page Nineteen 



jHemotr of General Jfflontgomerp 



to mention how, at the Centennial Banquet of the Lodge 
in 1887, R. W. Deputy Grand Master Bro. Clifford P. 
MacCalla, responding to a toast, gave utterance to the 
following impressive sentiments respecting the subject of 
this Memoir, which furnish a highly appropriate con- 
clusion thereto. He said : 

' ' In the British Parliament the eloquence of a Chat- 
ham and of a Burke paid tribute to his valour and his 
worth. Brethren, cherish the name of your Lodge, for 
there is none nobler ! ' No. 19 ' is happily married to 
1 Montgomery.' Patriotism and Masonry have been 
conjoined, and what has thus been united let not Masons 
ever put asunder ! " 



[Note — The author of the above Memoir desires to make his grateful acknowl- 
edgments to the following standard works of reference, as the chief sources of 
the material he has presented in connected form, viz.: Bancroft's History of the 
United States, Vol. VIII; Sparks' Library of American Biography; Dictionary 
of National Biography. Vol, XXXVIII ; Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American 
Biography, Vol. IV; History of Canada, Vol II. Second Edition, by Andrew 
Bell, published by John I,ovell, Montreal, 1862. The narrative of the siege of 
Quebec and of the tragic death of General Montgomery, as it appears between 
the two lines of asterisks, is quoted almost verbatim from the last, 
mentioned authority, as furnishing the most complete account of those 
interesting incidents available.] 



Page Twenty 



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